Bill needed money badly. That's why for a moment he was tempted to steal the DVD player he saw sitting on the table in the teacher's room. The wind had blown the door half open, and Bill could see that the teacher was not inside. It would be very easy to put the player in his bag and then quickly leave the school. The chances of his being caught were minimal, and Bill wouldn't have to worry about his debts any longer. And yet, a voice in his mind told him not to do it. Bill knew that this voice was his conscience. "Why can't I just steal this," he thought as he kept walking down the corridor. "Why is my conscience making life more difficult for me? I know many other people who would have stolen the player without hesitation. Why am I different? Where does a conscience come from anyway?"
American Humorist Kills His Conscience!
In his comic story "The Facts Concerning the Recent Carnival of Crime in Connecticut," American humorist Mark Twain explored the ins and outs of having a strong conscience. He claimed his conscience bothered him if he did not give to charity, then bothered him again if he gave too much. His conscience chided him for not giving food to a beggar, then bothered him for feeding one and encouraging begging!
Finally, in the story, Twain rises up and kills his conscience.
The result is pure bliss. However, Twain then goes on a crime spree that includes killing thirty-eight people and burning down a house that happened to block his view!
What do you think? Troublesome as it can be, is having a conscience a good thing?
What is conscience?
Conscience is the inner sense that enables us to distinguish between right and wrong. It is naturally sensitive to the truth, points us toward the greater good and urges us to live for the benefit of others. It is the inner voice that guides us, on the basis of our general moral views, to make correct decisions in real situations.
We often speak of conscience as a “voice.” When we follow our conscience, doing what is right and not doing what is wrong, this voice becomes strong. When we are tempted to do something we know is wrong, our conscience usually stops us. This is why we talk about not being able to go against our conscience. However, once we do violate it, all its moral energy is released and becomes guilt.
The stronger your conscience, the greater the feeling of guilt when you violate it. However, once you violate your conscience, it becomes much weaker because all the energy has been dissipated. So, even though you know what you are doing is wrong, your conscience puts up a weaker and weaker battle each time, and each time you violate it, you feel less guilty.
Guilt, then, is often a healthy indicator of an active conscience. If we do something we know is wrong, it is a sign of psychological health to feel guilty. If you put your hand in the fire, you feel pain. The pain tells you to take your hand out of the fire, put it under cold water and not put it in a flame again. Although we don't like to feel pain, it would be very dangerous not to be able to feel it. Guilt is the pain we feel when we do something wrong. A person who has no sense of guilt is very dangerous. He is capable of committing all sorts of crimes without the slightest remorse. In a sense, guilt is our friend because it is a warning that we are going in the wrong direction.
Each of us at some time or other has experienced the pangs of conscience. What is conscience, and where does it come from? Even though conscience is a dimension of our character, is it also, in some sense, a force that is independent of us?
Conscience as a measure of good and evil
Some people think that all moral problems would be solved if people just followed their consciences. However, because the conscience is influenced by the environment, each person’s conscience will be different from everyone else’s. For example, our values are heavily influenced by our religious beliefs. Thus, because of the dietary requirements of their faiths, it is against the conscience of Jews and Muslims to eat pork, but they happily eat beef that has been appropriately prepared. On the other hand, to Hindus, cows are sacred animals. They cannot in good conscience harm one, let alone eat one. Unlike these religious traditions, Christianity has few dietary restrictions and believers eat any type of food without qualms of conscience.
We should never do something we know is wrong. However, sometimes when we say, “I’m just following my conscience,” we really mean, “It’s OK to do this because I don’t feel guilty about it.”
For example, someone may not feel it is wrong to cheat. In other words, he may be merely justifying doing what he already wanted to do and is not really making a proper moral judgment. The problem of merely following one's conscience is that it may be malformed or undernourished, providing weak signals and insufficient guidance. The conscience will not function correctly if it has not been properly formed by high moral principles.
Distorted conscience
No one's conscience is perfect. However, sometimes a conscience can be badly formed. When this happens, our whole character will be disturbed. Here are some examples of a distorted conscience:
Incorrectly formed conscience: Our level of conscience is influenced by the moral standards of the society in which we grow up. Sometimes things that were acceptable at a certain time in history are later understood to be clearly wrong. For example, at one time many people thought that slavery (owning other people as property) was morally justified. They did not have any guilt feeling about owning slaves because of the culture in which they grew up. Now, however, slavery is recognized to be grossly immoral.
Unwarranted guilt: Sometimes we feel guilty when we ought not to. A person who opposed slavery might have felt guilty because he was going against what his parents and society told him was right and natural. There is a lot of pressure involved in going against what one has been told is right if one later comes to recognize it is wrong. Part of this pressure is experienced as unwarranted guilt. Such guilt is telling us that not conforming to society's standards is bad, even when we know those standards are wrong.
Lax conscience: This occurs when the conscience, due to our failure to heed it, becomes less and less sensitive to right and wrong and we experience too little guilt. This also may be why, when we really want something badly enough, or are desperate enough, we do things like cheat on a test or steal a little bit of money from a relative's purse. Because we have not strengthened our conscience over time by heeding it, we don't feel guilty when we do these things that are wrong.
Legalistic conscience: Sometimes we get so caught up in obeying certain rules that we cannot see the real needs of a situation or the right order of priorities. For example, if we are in a hurry to be at an appointment but see someone who needs our help, what should we do? Is it more important to not be late for an appointment or to help someone? It is easy to become so paralyzed by rules that we cannot follow what our heart is telling us to do.
The conscience should act like a compass, telling us which way to go, or at least which way not to go! If the dial of a compass is not accurate, we can easily be misled. So it is with our conscience. That is why it is important for us to spend time forming our conscience so that it is clear and straight. If we don’t, we will not be able to clearly distinguish between right and wrong.
Often a situation arises in which we are confused about what is the right thing to do. This is why we often make mistakes and do things we later regret. A well-formed conscience, then, is our teacher and our true friend. It tells us what we need to hear rather than what we want to hear. Heeding the conscience usually leads to a feeling of inner peace, a sense of integrity and of being true to oneself. Deep inside we feel good about our decision, and the happiness we experience is the result of doing the right thing.
There are two aspects to relating to our consciences — knowing what is right and doing what is right. Unfortunately, it is often easier to know what is right than to do what is right.
Who decides whether you make the right choice or not? You do! You are the one who has to decide. You are the one who is ultimately responsible and accountable for your decisions.
By carefully and sincerely forming your own conscience, you will find it easier to decide what is right and what is wrong. Sometimes you will make mistakes, and at other times you may intentionally do things that you know are wrong. The development of your conscience takes time, contemplation and effort.
Questions for Discussion
1. What is conscience?
2. Can you think of a situation when you violated your conscience?
3. Can you think of a situation when you followed your conscience?
4. In each of these situations, how did you feel afterwards?
5. How did these experiences affect the development of your character?
6. What is guilt?
7. Did you ever feel guilty about something you did? Why?
8. Is there something that you once thought was okay and now believe it to be wrong?
9. Is there something that you once thought was wrong and now believe it to be okay?
10. What happens if you simply ignore your conscience?
Exercise: “A Matter of Conscience”
Lara was working late at night in the shop. She had been working there for six months and got along with the manager and the other workers well. The shop had a lot of nice gifts, especially perfume and women's clothes. Her best friend's birthday was only a week away, but Lara did not have any money and knew that she would not be able to give her the gift she had planned to buy. She had saved her money for three months so that she could buy a special bottle of perfume from the shop for her friend, but Lara's mother had unexpectedly needed the money, which Lara gave to her. Now she felt terrible.
That night the store owner left Lara alone to close the shop. He really trusted her, she thought. Five minutes before closing, a lady came into the shop to return a bottle of perfume she had bought that day.
Amazingly, it was the same perfume Lara had wanted to get for her friend! The woman received her money and left the perfume. Lara sat alone in the store thinking. If she took the bottle no one would ever know — besides it was only one little bottle of perfume and the store owner had a lot of money. She deserved it, she thought; she had worked hard. But could she really take it? Even if the store owner would never know, it was still stealing. Even if her friend would love it, how would she feel if she knew her birthday present was stolen?
Choose a side to be on--that Lara should take a perfume or that she should not--and have a class debate about it.
Questions for Discussion
1. What do you feel Lara would do if she followed her conscience?
2. What would she do if she did not follow her conscience?
3. What considerations does Lara have to make?
4. What if you were in her position? How do you think you would react?
5. If a person's actions do not directly hurt another person, but are still dishonest, is the action any more acceptable?
Reflection Exercise
Think of an experience in your life when you strongly felt your conscience speaking to you. What were the circumstances? Who were the people involved? What did you do and what was the outcome? Did this have a lasting effect on your life in any way?
American Humorist Kills His Conscience!
In his comic story "The Facts Concerning the Recent Carnival of Crime in Connecticut," American humorist Mark Twain explored the ins and outs of having a strong conscience. He claimed his conscience bothered him if he did not give to charity, then bothered him again if he gave too much. His conscience chided him for not giving food to a beggar, then bothered him for feeding one and encouraging begging!
Finally, in the story, Twain rises up and kills his conscience.
The result is pure bliss. However, Twain then goes on a crime spree that includes killing thirty-eight people and burning down a house that happened to block his view!
What do you think? Troublesome as it can be, is having a conscience a good thing?
What is conscience?
Conscience is the inner sense that enables us to distinguish between right and wrong. It is naturally sensitive to the truth, points us toward the greater good and urges us to live for the benefit of others. It is the inner voice that guides us, on the basis of our general moral views, to make correct decisions in real situations.
We often speak of conscience as a “voice.” When we follow our conscience, doing what is right and not doing what is wrong, this voice becomes strong. When we are tempted to do something we know is wrong, our conscience usually stops us. This is why we talk about not being able to go against our conscience. However, once we do violate it, all its moral energy is released and becomes guilt.
The stronger your conscience, the greater the feeling of guilt when you violate it. However, once you violate your conscience, it becomes much weaker because all the energy has been dissipated. So, even though you know what you are doing is wrong, your conscience puts up a weaker and weaker battle each time, and each time you violate it, you feel less guilty.
Guilt, then, is often a healthy indicator of an active conscience. If we do something we know is wrong, it is a sign of psychological health to feel guilty. If you put your hand in the fire, you feel pain. The pain tells you to take your hand out of the fire, put it under cold water and not put it in a flame again. Although we don't like to feel pain, it would be very dangerous not to be able to feel it. Guilt is the pain we feel when we do something wrong. A person who has no sense of guilt is very dangerous. He is capable of committing all sorts of crimes without the slightest remorse. In a sense, guilt is our friend because it is a warning that we are going in the wrong direction.
Each of us at some time or other has experienced the pangs of conscience. What is conscience, and where does it come from? Even though conscience is a dimension of our character, is it also, in some sense, a force that is independent of us?
Conscience as a measure of good and evil
Some people think that all moral problems would be solved if people just followed their consciences. However, because the conscience is influenced by the environment, each person’s conscience will be different from everyone else’s. For example, our values are heavily influenced by our religious beliefs. Thus, because of the dietary requirements of their faiths, it is against the conscience of Jews and Muslims to eat pork, but they happily eat beef that has been appropriately prepared. On the other hand, to Hindus, cows are sacred animals. They cannot in good conscience harm one, let alone eat one. Unlike these religious traditions, Christianity has few dietary restrictions and believers eat any type of food without qualms of conscience.
We should never do something we know is wrong. However, sometimes when we say, “I’m just following my conscience,” we really mean, “It’s OK to do this because I don’t feel guilty about it.”
For example, someone may not feel it is wrong to cheat. In other words, he may be merely justifying doing what he already wanted to do and is not really making a proper moral judgment. The problem of merely following one's conscience is that it may be malformed or undernourished, providing weak signals and insufficient guidance. The conscience will not function correctly if it has not been properly formed by high moral principles.
Distorted conscience
No one's conscience is perfect. However, sometimes a conscience can be badly formed. When this happens, our whole character will be disturbed. Here are some examples of a distorted conscience:
Incorrectly formed conscience: Our level of conscience is influenced by the moral standards of the society in which we grow up. Sometimes things that were acceptable at a certain time in history are later understood to be clearly wrong. For example, at one time many people thought that slavery (owning other people as property) was morally justified. They did not have any guilt feeling about owning slaves because of the culture in which they grew up. Now, however, slavery is recognized to be grossly immoral.
Unwarranted guilt: Sometimes we feel guilty when we ought not to. A person who opposed slavery might have felt guilty because he was going against what his parents and society told him was right and natural. There is a lot of pressure involved in going against what one has been told is right if one later comes to recognize it is wrong. Part of this pressure is experienced as unwarranted guilt. Such guilt is telling us that not conforming to society's standards is bad, even when we know those standards are wrong.
Lax conscience: This occurs when the conscience, due to our failure to heed it, becomes less and less sensitive to right and wrong and we experience too little guilt. This also may be why, when we really want something badly enough, or are desperate enough, we do things like cheat on a test or steal a little bit of money from a relative's purse. Because we have not strengthened our conscience over time by heeding it, we don't feel guilty when we do these things that are wrong.
Legalistic conscience: Sometimes we get so caught up in obeying certain rules that we cannot see the real needs of a situation or the right order of priorities. For example, if we are in a hurry to be at an appointment but see someone who needs our help, what should we do? Is it more important to not be late for an appointment or to help someone? It is easy to become so paralyzed by rules that we cannot follow what our heart is telling us to do.
The conscience should act like a compass, telling us which way to go, or at least which way not to go! If the dial of a compass is not accurate, we can easily be misled. So it is with our conscience. That is why it is important for us to spend time forming our conscience so that it is clear and straight. If we don’t, we will not be able to clearly distinguish between right and wrong.
Often a situation arises in which we are confused about what is the right thing to do. This is why we often make mistakes and do things we later regret. A well-formed conscience, then, is our teacher and our true friend. It tells us what we need to hear rather than what we want to hear. Heeding the conscience usually leads to a feeling of inner peace, a sense of integrity and of being true to oneself. Deep inside we feel good about our decision, and the happiness we experience is the result of doing the right thing.
There are two aspects to relating to our consciences — knowing what is right and doing what is right. Unfortunately, it is often easier to know what is right than to do what is right.
Who decides whether you make the right choice or not? You do! You are the one who has to decide. You are the one who is ultimately responsible and accountable for your decisions.
By carefully and sincerely forming your own conscience, you will find it easier to decide what is right and what is wrong. Sometimes you will make mistakes, and at other times you may intentionally do things that you know are wrong. The development of your conscience takes time, contemplation and effort.
Questions for Discussion
1. What is conscience?
2. Can you think of a situation when you violated your conscience?
3. Can you think of a situation when you followed your conscience?
4. In each of these situations, how did you feel afterwards?
5. How did these experiences affect the development of your character?
6. What is guilt?
7. Did you ever feel guilty about something you did? Why?
8. Is there something that you once thought was okay and now believe it to be wrong?
9. Is there something that you once thought was wrong and now believe it to be okay?
10. What happens if you simply ignore your conscience?
Exercise: “A Matter of Conscience”
Lara was working late at night in the shop. She had been working there for six months and got along with the manager and the other workers well. The shop had a lot of nice gifts, especially perfume and women's clothes. Her best friend's birthday was only a week away, but Lara did not have any money and knew that she would not be able to give her the gift she had planned to buy. She had saved her money for three months so that she could buy a special bottle of perfume from the shop for her friend, but Lara's mother had unexpectedly needed the money, which Lara gave to her. Now she felt terrible.
That night the store owner left Lara alone to close the shop. He really trusted her, she thought. Five minutes before closing, a lady came into the shop to return a bottle of perfume she had bought that day.
Amazingly, it was the same perfume Lara had wanted to get for her friend! The woman received her money and left the perfume. Lara sat alone in the store thinking. If she took the bottle no one would ever know — besides it was only one little bottle of perfume and the store owner had a lot of money. She deserved it, she thought; she had worked hard. But could she really take it? Even if the store owner would never know, it was still stealing. Even if her friend would love it, how would she feel if she knew her birthday present was stolen?
Choose a side to be on--that Lara should take a perfume or that she should not--and have a class debate about it.
Questions for Discussion
1. What do you feel Lara would do if she followed her conscience?
2. What would she do if she did not follow her conscience?
3. What considerations does Lara have to make?
4. What if you were in her position? How do you think you would react?
5. If a person's actions do not directly hurt another person, but are still dishonest, is the action any more acceptable?
Reflection Exercise
Think of an experience in your life when you strongly felt your conscience speaking to you. What were the circumstances? Who were the people involved? What did you do and what was the outcome? Did this have a lasting effect on your life in any way?